User interface to enable users to scroll through a large list of items

ABSTRACT

Techniques pertaining to efficient scrolling are disclosed. One of the features of the efficient scrolling is the enablement of a search right at an appropriate item in a large list of items, thus avoiding going through the long list and wandering back and forth around a desired item. According to one embodiment, an indexing display is used. The indexing display includes a list of indexes, each corresponding to a group of items that sharing one or more common characteristics (e.g., a character or a kind). The indexing display is allowed first to be scrolled for a desired index. Once the desired index is confirmed, searching for a desired item in the large list starts at an item indexed by the desired index.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application relates to and claims the benefit of priorityfrom U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/382,272, filed on May 9, 2006,entitled “USER INTERFACE TO ENABLE USERS TO SCROLL THROUGH A LARGE LISTOF ITEMS”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is generally related to the area of man machine interface.In particular, the invention is related to method and apparatus foreffectively scrolling through a large list of items.

2. The Background of Related Art

The most popular use of a scroll wheel may be probably found on anApple's iPod. A scroll wheel of an iPod allows a user to scroll wherehe/she desires. Thus a user can choose songs to play on from lists ofartists, albums, composers, genres, or tracks.

The underlying mechanism of a scroll wheel is a software module beingexecuted to convert a physical motion of the user moving his/her fingerover the scroll wheel to a highlight bar on a list of music items. Thesoftware module is configured based on the concept of ‘acceleration’. Insimple terms, this means that the faster the user turns the scrollwheel, the faster the list on the screen will scroll. This is veryeffective in allowing users to traverse long lists.

There are, however, at least two problems observed. First, it stilltakes a long time to get through a large list of music items. Forexample, if a desired item is an item No. 1500 in a list of 2000 songs,a user has to go through the first 1499 items before reaching the itemNo. 1500. Second, when a list is scrolled fast, it is very hard for theuser to stop at the desired position without overshooting. For example.If the list is showing an artist named “Abba”, and the user wants toscroll to an artist named “Sting”, he/she must turn the scroll wheelfast in order to get from Abba to S's quickly. But because the list islong and so being scrolled fast, it is very easy to overshoot the listand get to the T's or U's by moving his/her finger on the scroll wheeltoo fast.

It is commonly accepted that a scroll wheel is a convenient mechanism toscroll through a list. Thus, there is a need for solutions that canfacilitate a user to readily reach to a desired item in a long list.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of thepresent invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments.Simplifications or omissions in this section as well as in the abstractor the title of this description may be made to avoid obscuring thepurpose of this section, the abstract and the title. Suchsimplifications or omissions are not intended to limit the scope of thepresent invention.

In general, the present invention pertains to power scrolling thatfacilitates a search right at an appropriate item, thus avoiding goingthrough a long list and wandering back and forth around a desired item.According to one aspect of the present invention, an indexing display isused. The indexing display includes a list of indexes, eachcorresponding to a group of items sharing one or more commoncharacteristics (e.g., a character or a kind). The indexing display isallowed first to be scrolled for a desired index. Once the desired indexis confirmed, searching for a desired item in the large list starts atan item indexed by the desired index.

The present invention may be implemented in many forms includingsoftware, hardware or a combination of both as a method and apparatus.According to one embodiment, the present invention is a method forscrolling a large list of items, the method comprises showing anindexing display that includes a list of indexes, each corresponding toa group of items that sharing one or more common characteristics;scrolling in the indexing display for a desired index; and scrolling inthe large list when the desired index is confirmed, wherein thescrolling in the large list starts at an item indexed by the desiredindex.

Depending on implementation, the large list may be sorted or unsorted.Thus the item indexed by the desired index may be a first one of a groupof items indexed by the desired index, or a first one in the large listthat is indexed by the desired index.

According to another embodiment, the present invention is an apparatusfor displaying a list of items, the apparatus comprises: a displayscreen, a screen driver configured to display the large list on thedisplay screen, a scroll wheel allowing scrolling in the list beingdisplayed, a memory for storing code, a processor executing the code toperform operations of: showing an indexing display that includes a listof indexes, each corresponding to a group of items that sharing one ormore common characteristics; scrolling in the indexing display for adesired index; and scrolling in the large list when the desired index isconfirmed, wherein the scrolling in the large list starts at an itemindexed by the desired index.

One of the objects, features, and advantages of the present invention isto provide solutions of effectively scrolling through a large list ofitems.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon examining the following detailed description of anembodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary configuration in which the present inventionmay be practiced;

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary device in which the present invention isimplemented according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B shows that, after the power scroll key is activated, a display,referred to herein as an indexing display, is popped up or displayed.

FIG. 2C shows another embodiment of the indexing display that shows alist of grouped indexes;

FIG. 3 illustrates an internal functional block diagram of an exemplaryportable device; and

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of scrolling a list of items in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The detailed description of the present invention is presented largelyin terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, or othersymbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble theoperations of devices or systems that can be used on networks. Thesedescriptions and representations are typically used by those skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art.

Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of theinvention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutuallyexclusive of other embodiments. Further, the order of blocks in processflowcharts or diagrams representing one or more embodiments of theinvention do not inherently indicate any particular order nor imply anylimitations in the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to likeparts throughout the several views. FIG. 1 shows a front view of anApple iPod 100 that includes a display screen 102 and a scroll wheel104. A user may put a finger on the scroll wheel 104 to navigate a listbeing displayed in the screen 102 by moving the finger clockwise orcounterclockwise. An acceleration of the finger movement would control anavigating speed of the list. Because the display screen 102 isrelatively small, a search of an item down in the list would oftenoverpass the item, resulting in repeated wandering back and forth aroundthe item.

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary device 200 in which the present invention isimplemented according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thedevice 200 includes a display screen 202 and a scroll wheel 204.Different from the device shown in FIG. 1, the display screen 202includes a number of soft keys 206, 208, and 210 that can berespectively activated by buttons 207, 209, and 211. One of the softkeys 206 is labeled as “power scroll” that can be activated to startwhat is referred to herein as power scrolling. The soft key 206 may beactivated by other means (e.g., touch screen). One of the features ofthe power scrolling is the underlying mechanism that provides a narrowedsearching range from which a desired item may be readily located in alarge list of items that may be provided locally or remotely.

FIG. 2B shows that, after the power scroll key 206 is activated, adisplay 220, referred to herein as an indexing display, is popped up ordisplayed. As used herein, it is defined that a display screen or ascreen is a physical display apparatus in a device, such as the displayscreen 202 of FIG. 2A, while a screen display or simply a display is animage presented on a display screen. According to one embodiment, theindexing display 220 is superimposed onto a displayed portion of a listof items. In another embodiment, the indexing display 220 is displayedon a side of a displayed portion of a list of items.

In any case, the indexing display 220 provides a list of indexes, eachconfigured to cover a predefined range or a group of items sharing acommon feature. As shown in the figure, the indexing display 220 shows alist of alphabets, each of the alphabets covers words or letters thatbegin with the corresponding alphabet. In operation, a user uses thescroll key 204 to scroll to a desired alphabet in the indexing display220 that then leads to the beginning, middle or ending of a list ofitems that begin with the desired alphabet. As a result, a user does nothave to scroll from the beginning of a list of items all the way to adesired item. With the power scrolling, the user now is able to “jump”to a right starting point and navigate in a much narrowed list for thedesired item.

FIG. 2C shows another embodiment of the indexing display 230 that showsa list of grouped indexes. Instead of having one index for one type ofitems, one or more indexes are grouped as a grouped index such that allitems in a list that begin with any index in one grouped index areassociated with the grouped index. As shown in the figure, a groupedindex “STU” 232 includes three characters and is selected, which leadsto the beginning of items that are started with any of the characters“S”, “T”, and “U”. As a result, a user does not have to go through itemsthat begin with characters “A”, “B”, . . . or “R”, and jump right intothe items beginning with the characters “S”, “T”, or “U”. In oneembodiment in which the list is not sorted, as shown in FIG. 2C, thenext item that the highlight 234 moves to is an item starting with anyof the characters “S”, “T”, and “U”. In other words, the scrolling bar234 is configured to move either linearly or nonlinearly in accordancewith a selection in the indexing display.

FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C show two examples of indexing characters. It shouldbe noted that an indexing display is not necessary to display only thefirst character of a word, a phrase or a string. Depending onapplication, an article, such as “a” or “the” may not be indexed at all,in which case, a next word may be used for indexing purpose. It can alsobe appreciated that the power scrolling may be used in other categories.For example, a list of items may be organized in terms ofcharacteristics, each of the characteristics is indexed by a label, orone or more of the characteristics are indexed by a grouped label. Whenthe power scrolling is on, a set of desired characteristics in a longlist can be readily located by the indexing display, where the indexingdisplay provides a list of labels or grouped labels for limitedscrolling.

According to one embodiment, a list of songs is organized in terms ofgenre (e.g., classic, jazz, Latin, pop, Rock . . . ). Each category maycontain numerous songs. Going through the list all the way to aparticular song in Rock can be tedious and experience the overshooting.With the power scrolling, the indexing display shows a list of the genreand provides means for jumping right into a desired category from whicha desired song is readily located.

According to one embodiment, after an index is selected, an itemhighlighted in a list can be either a first one or a last one in thecategory or group indexed by the selected index. When the first one ishighlighted in a display screen, a last item of a preceding group isalso displayed in the display screen. When the last one is highlightedin a display screen, a first item of a following group is also displayedin the display screen.

The power scrolling may be implemented in a device with a displayscreen. FIG. 3 illustrates an internal functional block diagram of anexemplary controller 270. The screen 272 on the controller 270 may be aLCD screen. The screen 272 communicates with and is commanded by ascreen driver 274 that is controlled by a microcontroller (e.g., aprocessor) 276. The memory 282 may be loaded with one or moreapplication modules 284 that can be executed by the microcontroller 276with or without a user input via the user interface 278 to achievedesired tasks. In one embodiment, an application module contemplatingthe power scrolling and enabling one or more soft keys is loaded in thememory 282.

The controller 270 includes a network interface 280 referred to as a RFinterface 280 that facilitates wireless communication with anotherdevice being controlled by the controller 270 via a correspondingwireless interface or RF interface thereof.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there shows a flowchart 400 of scrolling a listof items in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Theflowchart 400 may be implemented in software, hardware or in acombination of both as a method, an apparatus or a part of a system. Alist, typically containing many items, is displayed in a display screen.It can be appreciated to those skilled in the art that a list can be acollection of any items. To facilitate the understanding of the presentinvention, a list is considered a library of songs and each item is asong. The list is otherwise scrollable by a scroll wheel.

At 402, a user decides to look for an item in the list. Instead ofstarting scrolling the list, the user activates an indexing display thatshows a list of indexes, each indexing a group of items that share oneor more common features. In one example, the items in the group are allstarted with an identical character. In another example, the items inthe group are started with one of limited number characters (e.g., threecharacters). In still another example, the items in the group belong toone category or kind.

In one embodiment, the list being displayed in an indexing display ispre-generated. If there is an index in the list that does not correspondto any item, an item that is closest to an item that would be otherwiseindexed by the index is chosen. For example, an index “C” in theindexing display happens to be selected by a user while the underlyinglist does not have any items that are started with “C”, in which case,either a last item in a group started with “B” or a first item in agroup started with “D” is chosen. In another embodiment, the list beingdisplayed in an indexing display is generated whenever this is anupdated to the list of all items. At 406, the scroll wheel is associatedwith the indexing display such that the scrolling function now onlyapplies to the indexing display. The user can quickly locate a desiredindex in the indexing display because the list in the indexing displayis often short. At 408, if the located index is not the desired one, theprocess 400 goes back to 406 to allow the user continue looking for thedesired one.

It is assumed that the located index is the desired one, the process 400now goes to 410 where the scroll wheel is now associated with the listof all items. But the desired index brings a starting point right onto avery first item that is indexed by the desired index. From the startingpoint, the user can scroll the wheel to locate a desired item.

While the present invention has been described with reference tospecific embodiments, the description is illustrative of the inventionand is not to be construed as limiting the invention. Variousmodifications to the present invention can be made to the preferredembodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the truespirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claim. Forexample, the power scrolling or the indexing display may be activated bymeans other than a soft key. When activated, multiple indexing displaysmay be displayed, provided that there are multiple indexing displays(e.g., one for one type of indexing). A scroll wheel is activated toscroll through the multiple indexing displays first before becomingassociated with a selected indexing display. The power scrolling mayalso be automatically disabled when a list of items is short (e.g., lessthan 20 items or accommodative in a few displays). Accordingly, thescope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims ratherthan the forgoing description of embodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. Tangible, non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions encoded thereon, wherein the instructions,when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing device toperform a method comprising: displaying, in a first display on a screenof the computing device, at least a portion of a list of itemsselectable for playback by a playback device separate from andcontrolled by the computing device; activating a power scrolling mode;in response to activating the power scrolling mode, displaying anindexing display that is superimposed over the first display, whereinthe indexing display comprises a plurality of indexes, each indexcomprising one or more characters and corresponding to a subset of itemsin the list of items that share one or more common characteristics;while the power scrolling mode is activated, (i) receiving a userselection of one index of the plurality of indexes displayed in theindexing display, and (ii) in response to receiving the user selectionof the one index, displaying, in the first display, (a) at least asubset of the items in the one index and (b) at least one additionalitem in an adjacent index but not in the one index; receiving a userselection of an item in the one index displayed in the first display;and after receiving the user selection of the item in the one indexdisplayed in the first display, causing the playback device to play theselected item.
 2. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable mediaas recited in claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a portabledevice.
 3. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media asrecited in claim 1, wherein displaying the indexing display comprisesassociating the first display with the indexing display such that amovement on the first display causes scrolling in the indexing display.4. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media as recited inclaim 1, wherein the indexing display is on one side of the list ofitems.
 5. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media asrecited in claim 1, wherein the power scrolling mode is activated via asoft key.
 6. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media asrecited in claim 1, wherein each index comprises two or more characters.7. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media as recited inclaim 1, wherein the list of items is sorted and an item indexed by theone index is a first one or a last one of a group of items indexed bythe one index.
 8. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable mediaas recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more common characteristicscomprises at least one of an artist, an album, a composer, a genre, anda type.
 9. A computing device comprising: a processor; and tangible,non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructionsencoded thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:displaying, in a first display on a screen of the computing device, alist of items selectable for playback by a playback device separate fromand controlled by the computing device; activating a power scrollingmode; in response to activating the power scrolling mode on thecomputing device, displaying an indexing display that is superimposedover the first display, wherein the indexing display comprises aplurality of indexes, each index comprising one or more characters andcorresponding to a subset of items in the list of items that share oneor more common characteristics; while the power scrolling mode isactivated, (i) receiving a user selection of one index of the pluralityof indexes displayed in the indexing display, and (ii) in response toreceiving the user selection of the one index, displaying, in the firstdisplay, (a) at least a subset of the items in the one index and (b) atleast one additional item in an adjacent index but not in the one index;receiving a user selection of an item in the one index displayed in thefirst display; and after receiving the user selection of the item in theone index displayed in the first display, causing the playback device toplay the selected item.
 10. The computing device as recited in claim 9,wherein the computing device comprises a portable device.
 11. Thecomputing device as recited in claim 9, wherein displaying the indexingdisplay comprises associating the first display with the indexingdisplay such that a movement on the first display causes scrolling inthe indexing display.
 12. The computing device as recited in claim 9,wherein the power scrolling mode is activated via a soft key.
 13. Thecomputing device as recited in claim 9, wherein each index comprises twoor more characters.
 14. The computing device as recited in claim 9,wherein the list of items is sorted and an item indexed by the one indexis a first one or a last one of a group of items indexed by the oneindex.
 15. The computing device as recited in claim 9, wherein the oneor more common characteristics comprises at least one of an artist, analbum, a composer, a genre, and a type.
 16. A method performed by acomputing device, the method comprising: displaying, in a first displayon a screen of a the computing device, a list of items selectable forplayback by a playback device separate from and controlled by thecomputing device; activating a power scrolling mode; in response toactivating the power scrolling mode, displaying an indexing display thatis superimposed over the first display, wherein the indexing displaycomprises a plurality of indexes, each index comprising one or morecharacters and corresponding to a subset of items in the list of itemsthat share one or more common characteristics; while the power scrollingmode is activated, (i) receiving a user selection of one index of theplurality of indexes displayed in the indexing display, and (ii) inresponse to receiving the user selection of the one index, displaying,in the first display, (a) at least a subset of the items in the oneindex and (b) at least one additional item in an adjacent index but notin the one index; receiving a user selection of an item in the one indexdisplayed in the first interface display; and after receiving the userselection of the item in the one index displayed in the first display,causing the playback device to play the selected item.
 17. The method asrecited in claim 16, wherein displaying the indexing display comprisesassociating the first display with the indexing display such that amovement on the first display causes scrolling in the indexing display.18. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the power scrolling modeis activated via a soft key.
 19. The method as recited in claim 16,wherein each index comprises two or more characters.
 20. The method asrecited in claim 16, wherein the list of items is sorted and an itemindexed by the one index is a first one or a last one of a group ofitems indexed by the one index.